The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1887-07-16

Nneab or corn ne flrSt aScertalns
the constituent elements of his
soil, and then of the grains he
wishes to grow, and thus sows
his seed In that soil having the |
greatest number of clements in |
common with his seed, certain by |
thus following the indications Of |
nature, THAT if God gives the sun
shine and the rain, he will have |
an abundant harvest.
So the wool grower first analy-
yes his wool, and then the grasses
on which he feeds his sheep, and |
then again the soil on which he
grows his grass, thus following
the laws of nature; and she, like
a watchful mother, throws around
his work her faithful GUARDIAN
ship, and fulfils all her promises.
But If he attempts TO turn her
from her course, she never fails
sooner or later, 10 take her re-
yenge and fill him with sorrow
and disappointment. No man
can oppose Nature and prosper.
Perseverance will never mako him
great in u course nature never
designed him to pursue.
You might as well think Of
growing Il harvest without the
adaptation of seed and soil, as to
excel in any profession without
constitutional adaptation for 1t.
The only road, therefore, TO tue
success, is 10 follow nature, for
she always leads in the plainest
path to the highest eminence at
tainable by the exercise Of those
intellectual powers she has given.
There are few men who may
not attain success, prompted by
generous impulse, and governed
by a noble independence, but
they must seek it in the direction
nature points them.
Unless a man has the soul of
poetry in him, you might pile up
on his mind stores of knowledge,
but 1t would never make him
poet; neither can you harness a
brilliant, fiery imagination, which
lives only in the regions Of fancy,
TO cold, passionless, syllogistic
mathematics. CIavius, who died
in the early part of the seventeenth
century, leaving five folio volumes
of his invaluable works behind
him, was pronounced by all his
teachers, for many years ineapa-
bic of learning anything, until by
accident his attention was turned
TO Geometry, when his mipd seized
| it almost by intuition and develop
ed its latent energies with prodi-
gious power, so that he was soon
regarded as the Euclid Of his age.
Let every one study the incll-
nation of his own mind, and choose
| that profession or1ine of study Tor
which he has the strongest prefer
ence, and then, by perseverance
and independence, he is bound TO
lsuccecd.
| Difficulties, like the evil proph-
ct of Homer's IIliad may predict
your failure. but if you are true
to nature, she will bring you
triumphantly over them all.
Every man, therefore, may be
great in his way--but let him
never attempt TO wing a mathe-
matical mind for a poets fight,
nor yoke a burning fancy to a
philosophical car. All such efforts
would be as fatal to his success as
| Pheton's attempt to drive the
chariot of the Sun.
The great law of adaptation is
universal in the intellectual as
well as in the physical world, and
it never can be violated with
impunlty. No one mind can ever
grasp the WHOLE circle of science,
and become eminent in EVERY
| department of literature.
| Wken Arthisthenes was told
that Irmenias played beautifully
i upon the flute, he replied rightly
enough, says Plutarch sThen is
/ he good for nothing eIse.'' Let
each one thoroughly study his
own mind, and he will soon learn
what course nature designed him
to take, for she is always true to
who follow her. She never
promises more than she performs,
neither does she ever make mis-
take; as the utility, the beauty
and the harmony of the universe
\ CLEARLY show.
Permit me, now. having pre-
sented preI:minaries, to call you
to consideration of ssIndepen-
dencc of Mind as the Controlling
Element in all True Success:-
It is exceedingly difficult to de-
fine precisely what we mean by
! Independence of mind, for it man